The Prototype TOUCHSCREEN iMac… From 1999

It might look like a regular iMac G3... but it sure doesn't act like one! A while back, I got my hands on this extremely rare touchscreen Mac. And in today's episode, we're going to explore its history and see how it works!
Archived Restore Disc: archive.org/details/EloiTouch
Action Retro's Slot Loading Video: • I Found a Weird Touch ...
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#MichaelMJD #iMac #Prototype

[@EloTouchSolutions]

Thank you for posting this, Michael MJD. We've been involved in touch technology for over 52 years, and today, we have over 30 million touchscreen installations worldwide. #EloIsEverywhere

[@GeneralPurposeVehicl]

If this supports multitouch, this could be the future of touch as GMOs and Cyborgs become more common. Claws and plastic don't work very well with capacitive touch.

[@mayoiscool]

Hi EloTouchSolutions

[@mayoiscool]

technolergy

[@lucasrem]

1970, was it porn entertainment ? Weirdo years !

[@internretcreature]

i want one :(

[@photolabguy]

It's about time someone covered this. My college was filled with these iMacs with toich screens. Hundreds and hundreds of them.

[@thetenniszone123]

Wow so cool to hear. Could you tell us what were they used for?

[@S500-]

Its Hard To Believe Can you Tell Which Where

[@photolabguy]

We had quite a few computer labs filled with these touch screen iMacs.

[@BilisNegra]

That's really cool. At the same time, though, to think most of those have quite probably been scrapped breaks my heart!

[@yasurfinnancel.t.d5096]

Toich screen pffft

[@bloonzer3473]

its crazy to think that it took us so long to make a touchscreen with a taptic sensor, yet we did it in 1999

[@SilvaDreams]

Umm, not really I remember using a touchscreen POS at Subway in the late 90s... My manager agreed it was aptly named because it was Peice of Sh*t. Even more funny the same pos program was still in use till 4 years ago at my local gas station and they had only upgraded to it 10 or so years prior (before that it was still a 80s program... and this was a corporate owned Chevron, not some private owned.

[@Bearbytez]

​@@SilvaDreams"ummm" cool story. 🙄

[@sundog.]

What he's talking about is the pressure sensitivity. It's a unique and complicated feature.@@SilvaDreams

[@mikcnmvedmsfonoteka]

IDK about pressure sensitive touchscreens but touchscreens has been around since mid 60s tought with stylus pens etc. Heck Nazis had video call in 1936 tough it was so expensive they dropped that project, same as we had electric cars more than 100 years ago or electric scooters back in 1916 which progressive women drove

[@nonegone7170]

@@Bearbytez "ummm" if you have nothing to say, say nothing 🙄

[@jasonford5926]

Great find... Brings back memories. I worked for Elo, in their original TN facility, and was the system engineer on the initial iMac/Touch prototype (I still have a scar on left hand from this project!). I recall Apple actually approaching Elo to integrate touch onto the iMac. The touch on tube technology was already available and being used with Elo's CRT products - so it made an easy fit for the iMac. Many of these were iMacs with touch were sold. The primary use was for a table top kiosks with Web interface. There were special internet browsers that would allow you to lock the to a specific URL. The same browser would make the URL more touch friendly by manipulating the button size and location. With the browser, and the iMac you could deploy this makeshift kiosk in your business lobby. I do not remember the offerings from MicroTouch or Troll, but good to know they had something also.

[@tunkunrunk]

this is why I love innovative vintage tech , you are always surprised to see technology ahead of its time

[@rabidwallaby84]

I'm super familiar with ELO. They're almost the industry standard for retail touch screens...and EVERY knockoff uses screens compatible with their drivers. There should be a way to change the pointer precision options so that it works better. Fun Fact: If I recall correctly, the Z-Axis for ELO touchscreens isn't measuring how hard you press. It's measuring how squished your finger gets during the press. At least, that's how it works on newer units.

[@Ryyi23]

I wish I had a finger squish meter.

[@Jwellsuhhuh]

How does it measure how squished your finger is? A camera? 😂 or maybe it’s just seeing higher suppression of the acoustic waves cuz that would make more sense

[@gugu5285]

@@Jwellsuhhuh more squish is more area used up, occams razor

[@Jwellsuhhuh]

@@gugu5285 oh ye that makes more sense

[@ethanpschwartz]

A store I was working in was being remodeled and I started to hear whispers of a giant touchscreen TV going on the sales floor. When we walked in, sure enough there was an at least 60" TV that changed between a product selection kiosk and pleasant imagery. I thought, "Who makes these?" When I saw "Elo" at the bottom, it all made sense.

[@MrDeelightful]

Omg, Action Retro said you were putting out a video on this "soon" but I didn't expect it *this* soon! This is such a weird and innovative way to make a CRT into a touchscreen that I'm glad to see more content on it. GREAT score on the red G3 too, I don't see that one much but it's my personal fave.

[@s0rr0wHacker]

Same

[@Connorplayer123]

Same

[@richjamjam]

Same

[@eriksiers]

Same

[@henrimusic671]

Same

[@4.0.4]

I knew of resistive and capacitive touchscreens, and also those early optical ones, but I never imagined you could make one this good with acoustics.

[@dinism1k]

13:03 I'm shocked the scroll work that way in such an early touch display. People who made drivers for this thing were ahead of the time and sort of genius

[@Humbird00]

I don't think that even relied on the driver. The PDF viewer probably just uses drag scrolling by default. That's usually what that hand cursor represents.

[@JoCaTen]

Just finished watching the previous video about bootleg games. What a treat, another video! Touchscreen CRTs do sound unusual but Mac? Even more unusual. Interesting

[@riggles]

Not that unusual, fairly common in bars, casinos and such for gambling machines (card games and similar). And some terminals, but mostly gambling machines.

[@JoCaTen]

@@riggles oh yeah, right. Just never got to interact with one, got used to touchscreen LCDs more.

[@piked86]

The earliest interaction I had with a touch screen that wasn't an LCD panel was probably around 1991 as a small child. My school had a computer that they wheeled into classrooms on a cart and it had a clear panel stuck over the CRT monitor that was touch sensitive. I remember playing chess on it. It had to be calibrated everytime you used it because of the distance between the screen and the panel so depending on your viewing angle it would be way off. The chess program used this as a feature in two player games as you couldn't try to move the other players pieces and it keeps two sets of calibrations when starting a game.

[@useruser510uu]

​@@JoCaTen hi

[@GreenLeefMusic]

​@riggles We had one of these at the Indianapolis Zoo too when I was a kid. It used to have a game where it would take a photo of you and then that photo would be your character's head, and you could walk around a 3d environment with it. I think they also may have had them at some McDonalds locations when they used to have the kids computer station in their restaurants.

[@Beef_1000]

Wow, thats amazing. A 25 year old Mac could have a touch screen, but new Macs don't. Plus its actually good!

[@trashyraccoon2615]

Touchscreen isn’t really ergonomic for a computer monitor which sits upright. That’s what iPads are for

[@gracekim25]

24* actually, I’m older than this computer 😂 (I’m almost 25)

[@atlasfugged9044]

because apple has the sense to recognize that touchscreen on a desktop/laptop is stupid

[@nnnnnn3647]

new mac CAN, but this still has no sense.

[@aaronsibley]

how else will they sell ipads?

[@callmeval3542]

Touch screens were first invented in the 60s and sold in the 80s by HP. And the first touch screen phone was made in the early 90s by IBM. I remember watching a KZbin channel that played 80s commercials and I was so shocked when there was a commercial for a touchscreen computer.

[@vadim6385]

There were even GM cars in the 1980s with touch screen infotainment, like Buick Reatta and some Oldsmobile model. Looked weird on a 70s style rectangular brown dashboard with fake wood trim.

[@abigaillilac1370]

"And by the way, I WILL be archiving this disk." Was there ever any doubt? You're the man! 😄

[@lucymorrison]

disc, not disk.

[@abigaillilac1370]

@@lucymorrison They're both correct. "Disc" is British English and "Disk" is American English. It's like "Colour" vs "Color"

[@Toonrick12]

@@abigaillilac1370 While true, it's usually that CD's (and the like) are Discs while Floppies (Along with Hard Drives and SSDs) are Disks.

[@AddieDirectsTV]

We actually have used ELO monitors in broadcast too. Usually for the robotic camera systems, or the broadcast automation systems. Though I think our current monitors are Dell and Viewsonic.

[@alext3811]

I remember half a decade years ago as a child that our new public library building had a set of TV-sized ELO touchscreens that showed statistics related to the solar panels.

[@readybear64]

2 mjd vids 2 days in a row? Impossible.

[@_LGD]

I know right!

[@supergamer906]

Yea it feels impossible

[@zane7475]

Ikr!

[@thatcatlover]

Yeah that odd

[@AddlerMartin]

No. It's necessary

[@dogecode386]

If i had a nickel for every time i saw a video about the touchscreen iMac this weekend, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?

[@samdmc04]

Right! I saw Action Retro did it too

[@PartyPhil1]

I’d have only one. Now I’m poor. :(

[@ActionRetro]

Can I have a nickel since you have two

[@crispin5741]

A real Deep Impact/Armageddon situation.

[@ghostmantagshome-er6pb]

If it was the algorithm. Google owns KZbin.

[@Jadeon]

I have a pretty vivid memory from Kindergarten or grade 1 (2001-2003) of interacting with a CRT computer with a touchscreen at my school. More recently I've been unsure about that memory since I was just tapping glass, and I didn't think that kind of touchscreen was generally available back then, but it could have been one of these!

[@servantbyday]

That’s so cool!

[@Autotrope]

I have no doubt you used a touch screens at that time, touch screens were not a new technology by then, they were adding touch screens to monitors back in the days of monochrome crt monitors. And, yes they did tend to crop up in schools and kindergartens.

[@joeythefoxxo]

One thing I can confirm is that Elo is everywhere in the commercial world. Every register I have ever messed with as well as Target price kiosks and Home Depot paint kiosks, even most self checkouts, use Elo screens.

[@aanjaneya_meaow]

Great video! This got me wondering how far back can we go with touch screens on devices...

[@stephanieiwaniuk6088]

So it looks like the first patent was from 1946! The first "practical" models weren't built until the 70s. Source: wikipedia en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen

[@RectangleJourney]

Dumb

[@NourMostafa_Productions]

You have Pateron don't you?

[@1000bytes]

was the video unlisted when you commented bc how did you comment 5 hours ago

[@PatheticallyPoorProductions]

5 hours ago????? How?

[@NourMostafa_Productions]

Can't belive there was a touch screen device from 1999. Keep it going MJD!

[@elektrokinesis4150]

touchscreens are decades older than you think they are, they have existed in some form since the 1960s

[@jakethreesixty]

IBM had a touch screen monitor for their computers in the 80s, hell Oldsmobile offered an optional full-blown touch screen infotainment system (minus GPS obviously) in 1986 and offered it until the early 90s.

[@liamhenrymusic6338]

I remember we had touchscreen smartboards at school in around 2002/2003. Only a couple years after 1999!

[@CDRiley]

I worked at McDonald’s started in 1997, we had touch screen cash register.

[@vascomanteigas9433]

HP 150 made in 1985 (?) had a touchscreen, using infrared diodes.

[@kyle8952]

I saw one of these as a kiosk in Currys (UK electronics retailer) around 2005 or so. It was long abandoned, since the product display it was meant for was from 1999ish. There was a cardboard surround on it inviting you to touch. I thought it was a cool idea.

[@2elw]

You should come back to them and ask them to buy it for like 200£ bcs they probably have it stored in the back somewhere 😂

[@jendorei]

@@2elwor they tossed it out... :(

[@TylerMcVicker1]

This is an awesome video. Incredible work!

[@sriramsundar8388]

iMac G4 would've been the most ideal design for a touchscreen Mac.

[@Toonrick12]

The Sunflower? For sure.

[@JaredConnell]

It's still one of my favorite computer designs ever. I just don't know how well it would hold up being pushed day in day out by people who aren't going to be gentle.

[@xero110]

10:00 The 'Value Apple Reseler' program is an awesome idea. I remember seeing a tablet Mac Book conversion that was also sold under this program back in the day. Companies need to do this today. How cool would it be to be able to buy a semi-official Mac Book Pro 2023 'tablet' today? Or any of the others like Dell, HP, ASUS, etc. They don't lose any money, they no longer need to honor the warranty since the reseller does that now. It is a total win, win, win.

[@servissop151]

It was called the Modbook i think, and was sold in the late 00s, as a macbook with the two sides of the laptop joint together and a touchscreen layer added

[@localblackman427]

I believe they were losing revenue bc ppl weren't buying the new macs that were coming out but buying the repurposed older models. Snazzy labs did a pretty good video about it. This was back when they let 3rd party companies put macos on almost anything

[@xero110]

@@localblackman427 Yeah, staying profitable isn't easy, especially with Apple prices. AFAIK, The Modbook ran OS X. Apple stopped licensing macOS way before OS X.

[@Deebofreebo]

We totally had those user mountable touchscreens in my elementary school library. This brought back a very deep core memory.

[@gammaboost]

Even though you changed the analog board, I could tell that the CRT still had a bit of a tint to it. This iMac was definitely switched on for a long time, probably as a kiosk.

[@nyanpasu64]

My VX720 showed up with a tint despite just 1000 hours of beam-on time. I don't know if that was due to manufacturing variance/defects, aging electronics, or the beam wearing out in standby rather than just when running. I'd try calibrating the screen colors (ensuring proper white balance in dark, medium, and light scenes) before concluding the tube is worn.

[@allofthebaldeagles9165]

Glad I wasn’t the only one noticing this.

[@mystery_pond]

When Action Retro mentioned you said you would be doing a retrospective video on these, I wasn't expecting it to be within days! Thanks for the video.

[@ltxr9973]

I remember some kind of touch screen imac from a museum I went to as a kid, almost forgot these were a thing. Back then the imacs were pretty new and they were suddenly popping up in many places where you wouldn't expect to see a mac because back then Macs were really rare. Then more people got to know them when the first imacs came out.

[@unnamedchannel1237]

Touch screens were actually developed for museums. It prob wasn’t a Mac but a kiosk for the exhibit

[@leokimvideo]

It's very human to take two steps forward and one step back. Apple always take that idea to the next level

[@pooyataleb2514]

they mostly take 1 step back and increase the price by 2 steps

[@stellarspace_95]

They’re a lucky strike that just won’t burn out

[@UltraCenterHQ]

Apple really had to do a backflip for those widgets

[@DanielJacksonMusic]

I see you all over the gaff lol, used to watch you when I was young

[@Sub5_77]

Till Jobs died lol

[@paulmuaddib451]

A tip for being able to use the touchscreen feature to navigate the desktop/OS: change the resolution the display is running at. This usually makes those hard to touch elements larger and easier to touch.

[@jjdigitalvideosolutionsllc5343]

Interesting stuff. There were touch screen Amiga computers in the early 90s, or rather Amiga computers with 3rd party touch screen tech. Mostly used in kiosk set-ups in conjunction with multimedia programs like Amiga Vision and Scala. I wonder if elo did touch screens for Amigas earlier on.

[@shawnstillman736]

Action Retro said you would be making a video about this didnt think it would be so soon! Thats awesome man!

[@Technology-Repair-Druid]

This is amazingly cool! I have an iMac G3 Indigo myself (as well as an eMac) and this is so darn cool! Awesome video Michael! 😁

[@V1VISECT6]

Old friend and bandmate (rest his soul) wound up with one of these in 2002 or 03. We loved using this with Cubasis VST 2. (No, not the new "Cubasis".) The jump from Steinberg 3 on the S/T and BBS/IRC to a actual DAW and sequencer and dial up blew his mind back then. The same goes for the old man. I miss the charm of Os8-OSX Tiger. I ditched Mac OS in 2008 for my music production in favour of Adobe Auditon 3 and then Cakewalk and Sonar on good ol XP and Windows 7.

[@jackcummins2275]

The pressure sensitivity is really cool, I always think that could have musical implications

[@crichard]

At first I assumed that it would use some miserable resistive overlay. However, that acoustic wave system seems fantastic!

[@atacant]

you are a legend for archiving the CD. Thanks a lot even if I don't have one

[@cooperschwartz318]

Yeah the touchscreen stuff is cool but the real coolness is how he managed to film the iMac without flickering

[@Autotrope]

Basically, set the camera's shutter speed to 1/60. On a 60fps video that's a 360 degree shutter angle but totally doable with modern electronic shutter

[@santileonsteinberg1441]

i came here as fast as i could!!! i had heard about these a long time ago and i never knew you owned one! 🧡

[@kahlil88mph]

It's too bad Elo and Apple didn't collaborate more directly and make a "blue sky" colored model

[@OdairASilva]

Wow, just wow. Nice job, MJD!

[@Markimark151]

I remember a dark blue touchscreen iMac that was used in my high school’s library kiosk, it had an interactive program for school clubs and other student services! Elo was even a big name for touchscreen computers, because they also made LCD touchscreen kiosks in schools and community centers!

[@simonpetrus1981]

Michael, Thanks for this wonderful review of a this “touchscreen” iMac🖥✅👍🏻.

[@blainepalmerza]

Awesome video, Michael!

[@dedr4m]

That controller board was quite common in the SNIkey TFT from WINCor Nixdorf, who used the same ELO Acoustic touch system on a glass panel for their LCD modules... quite common on MultiQ touch systems too if I recall correctly. I fixed a lot of E-POS, now printers for the same company...

[@PhateShepherd]

Long ago, I worked in an Apple authorized repair/retail store. I remember doing a couple conversions of Apple CRTs to touch screen. I believe it was the Sony Trinitron tube Apple displays. I can't recall for sure who made the conversion kit, but I suspect it was Microtouch. The CRT was removed, and the panel sandwiched in between the bezel and crt.

[@AwesomeGames56]

My school had one of those external touch screen overlays on the ONE iMac we had in 2002. At the school. It was wild going into the computer lab and playing some of the games that were installed on it that were compatible with touch. (All educational)

[@Peacewalker26]

I love the aesthetic of your video’s man. Keep it up. ❤

[@JarretSlater]

glad you are back really enjoyed this video

[@joman66]

I recognize the elo name! This would've been cool to see as some sort of POS or interactive kiosk display in the early 2000s!

[@krzbrew]

Thank you for sharing this with us

[@yzi]

it'd be cool to see a tocuhscreen mac! good job :D

[@maxtech66999]

As always, I loved this video! Keep it up Michael! I love you ❤❤

[@RickSanchez-ig3lp]

I used an addon for one of the older Macs from the late 1980s that made it into a pressure based touch screen. This was back in the late 90s in a hospital therapy center.

[@iainmurphy9101]

So cool that you have one of these. The story goes that Elo had to develop a SAW touch screen that used UV curable features so they could retrofit to the glass directly. Every other company that tried to make a touch screen iMac had a big bezel or extra glass in front, so Steve Jobs only ok'd their design since it kept the original iMac look

[@markfuston2714]

Woah, I didn't know they existed with native touch screens. I feel like I remember my elementary school having these screens that laid on top of the real screen that added touch functionality for kids that were unable to use a mouse due to disabilities, but I'm almost positive none of our iMacs had the touch screen built in..I can still kinda remember helping to put them into the computer lab and I feel like I would've remembered this for sure..lol, cool to learn about!

[@judeguerlinaugustin9422]

It is possible to rapidly design an HTML page with large functionning buttons (as hyperlinks) using MS PowerPoint 2003. That would (i think) perfectly illustrate the use of that kind of device as kiosks. With office 2003 you could even add videos as in any slideshow and the video would play right in the web browser! 9:08

[@Humbird00]

Basically anything that reacts to the mouse could be used. Hypercard would be another good option.

[@kurtg5405]

I didn't realise the Electric Light Orchestra had such a wide portfolio.

[@XMguy]

I remember touch screen overlays when I was in middle school in 1997. Mostly on Mac laptops. These were used for physically/mentally disabled children. I’m also in Tennessee.

[@BenNotVictor]

I have a troll touch eMac!! So crazy to hear it mentioned by someone else for the first time ever in the time I’ve had it! I never knew anything about it or that there were other models by various companies. Super cool stuff, I’m glad I clicked this video.

[@luluthecat1570]

The prophecy! Right after Action Retro told us about it, it's up!

[@Toothles.s]

I wish old bowling lanes touchscreens were that good 😂

[@j.w.techchannel]

Didn't know a touchscreen iMac G3 existed. That is so cool!

[@eggbag4182]

Reminds me of the Buick Reatta CRT infotainment screen in early models. They ditched it due to inconvenience compared to physical buttons and dials. If only they knew

[@AbWischBar]

Touch, drag and drop - this works super well. Mighty impressed.

[@1973Washu]

I want to see that case design make a comeback . The colorful transparent plastic case was awesome.

[@jn-zr2ki]

You could buy the internal elo kits by themselves. I bought one in the mid-nineties as a teenager. I cracked open my Compaq's monitor to install it which was probably dangerous. I used it on all those Imergy Star Trek CD-ROMs

[@SteveChisnall]

would love to see one of those kits installed on a Rev. B bondi-blue iMac with the Sonnet HARMONi 600 MHz G3 CPU upgrade-cards that also adds FireWire. Those, plus a ForMac iProTV SCSI+TV-tuner card in the mezzanine-slot (and a GeeThree Stealth Serial Port card to replace the internal modem) would make for one killer combo!

[@SteveChisnall]

some people have populated the "Wings" personality card on the All-In-One PowerMac G3 with a USB controller-chip and gotten USB working on it. Maybe the elo touchscreen kit could be installed to that All-In-One G3's CRT and connected via that USB port?

[@hmpeter]

Very cool! Reminds me me of the then already old point of service terminals I used to service in the early 2000s. With novell netware running on dos and with touch displays. Macs were not a thing over here in that time, so sadly I have never seen a touch imac.

[@DenzelVelazquez-ky8cy]

Thx for the video buddy

[@Ricar2002YT]

What an interesting piece of tech!

[@VegitoHatesWarder]

Man i love your videos ever since 2019

[@asadfarraj]

0:49 I *love* that reference! 😆

[@AnDrewwy]

0:49 "Butt" (Shows Red moon Desert) 🤣 Very clever Michael!

[@philtkaswahl2124]

Always love seeing these niche predecessors to technological features we now take for granted today.

[@proliverplays]

The upload speed! Great videos!

[@proliverplays]

20th User!!!

[@itismezed]

I just saw Action Retro’s vid on the same! Still love this vid, MJD. :)

[@epiciphones]

this is a awesome video!! 1999 touch screen

[@junaidmzafar]

The way you scrolled the PDF document at 13:03 was so ahead of its time made famous now by the iPhone in 2007, I remember Windows tablets not even being able to do that, you had to use a stylus and hit the scrollbar buttons on the side.

[@mclaine33]

Very cool vid. You should try one of those “click & point” video games which were popular in the 90s such as Myst. (Not sure if there was a Mac port of that game).

[@KearSki]

Somewhat interestingly Myst was released for the Macintosh first, coming out late 1993 while it hit windows early 1994

[@juanignacioaschura9437]

Myst was first released on Macintosh

[@mclaine33]

@@KearSki oh that’s really neat. Yeah MJD should consider trying that then.

[@lamamawa7541]

This is Quality Content. Thanks (:

[@ramashankarpandey4341]

I FINALLY FOUND YOUR CHANNEL I USED TO WATCH IT SO MUCH

[@spectrumbots4268]

Oh wow! I didn't know this existed. Neat!

[@nrdesign1991]

CRT touchscreens were nothing unusual but they do were kinda novel. Poking a screen deliberately? Wild!

[@subynut]

That's really cool!

[@T.E.S.S.]

Great video

[@mikerope5785]

I remember seeing a touch screen mac WAAY before 1999 it was mid 90s kiosk at a show/museum, I wonder if the same company made it, I remember being blown away because it was sensing your presses through the glass which seemed like magic to me as a kid.

[@calebsegona875]

Maybe this will get some traction and make me feel less crazy were these ever in a fast food restaurant like burgerking in the play area. I have a weird memory with no Internet background of a blue all in one touchscreen computer.

[@robot_ave]

You're not crazy - my local Burger King had a couple of them. Glad I ctrl + F'd the comments to see if anyone else remembered

[@calebsegona875]

@@robot_ave Ive been searching for this validation for close to 20 years thank you.

[@victoriagrayson5082]

This is so freakin' cool! I like your bobblehead.

[@anthrobug]

I don't know what else they did but elo was adding these for kiosks in higher ed on campuses. I think they sold in the thousands, at least. I know a few Apple customers used them with custom software packages in OS 9 and OS X as kiosks on campuses.

[@futuristicentity2417]

I would of been 7 years old in 1999 damn time flies by pretty quickly you people are making me miss being a kid even more I keep swearing being 30 sucks.

[@Bleats_Sinodai]

I remember touchscreens back in the mid 90s, they used them at kiosks in the local mall where I live everytime they had some event or big movie on the theater so you could check screening times or whatever event was going on.

[@DerekWitt]

In 1994, EDS (Electronic Data Systems-Ross Perot’s company) demonstrated a 3D vector monitor that could detect where within a box the user was reaching in. I saw this monitor demonstrated at the Info Mart in Dallas. EDS had an entire floor for their exhibits. The floor was laid out to look like a small town’s downtown Main Street. It was very fascinating! They also had a large screen monitor that would allow the user to use what looked like a laser pointer to control a mouse cursor from across the room in Windows 3.1. If you touched the screen with the pointer, it behaved like a stylus and you could write on it. Of course, writing recognition was crude by today’s standards.

[@Techmej]

Elo was going way ahead of it's time with this one

[@Kyntteri]

Touchscreen computers were old news in the 90's and in the 80's already.

[@Techmej]

@@Kyntteri that's...not quite what I meant

[@Kyntteri]

@@Techmej Then congratulations for successfully hiding what ever the true meaning was.

[@amdintelxsniperx]

i repaired a few of these back in high school , we had a few of these for students with special needs

[@station5045]

There was a touchscreen crt in my primary school (2010ish) and it blew me tf away as a kid

[@Fifury161]

I used to repair these screens back in the day - usually took me under 30 seconds to have them up & running again!

[@Windows95-likes-old-tech]

Your videos are amazing! and i love CRTs but touchscreen CRTs.. i thought the megatouch was the only touchscreen CRT :'D Edit: amazing explanation aswell

[@pterocardio]

apple went from allowing other businesses modify and sell their machines to not letting people repair their own devices.

[@kevboard]

as a kid it was always cool to find these kind of touch screens installed in malls/stores. I always wondered how they worked, without an overlay

[@marinadela1361]

This is crazy. So ahead of its time. All the news outlets are stupid for not mentioning this and debating whether there will ever be a touchscreen Mac. Well guess what there already was!